Once upon a time, Chandler Palethorpe bought a brand new, fiberglass “egg” travel trailer. It served its purpose for Chandler and his family: it got them camping. However, he found that his trailer was still lacking in quality and in headroom. He also felt it was designed with a floor plan that wasted space. For a few years, Palethorpe kept thinking how to make a better trailer. In 2010, he finally put his ideas into a business plan: The ParkLiner

The mission of ParkLiner is simple: Build a better fiberglass trailer than the competition. Christopher Neve of ParkLiner tells us, “We have designed and created a hassle free and well thought out product. The light weight fiberglass body of the camper allows it to be towed by smaller fuel-efficient vehicles. The folding table and the bunk option are a couple of ways that a ParkLiner may be customized in order to meet each individuals’ specific needs. Whether you are a family of four looking for a convenient way to camp or a couple looking for a comfortable way to travel, a ParkLiner will exceed your needs.” As we’ve seen with other smaller trailer companies, they tend to offer flexibility to design a trailer to a customer’s specifications.

ParkLiner started in January 2010 with designing plugs & body molds, as well as cabinets, throughout the first year. The first unit rolled off the line in the spring of 2011. In less than a year of production, they’ve now completed a modest four trailers. However, with just 3 full-time employees and a part-time accountant and web guru, these things take time. The plan for 2012 is to produce one unit per week by the month of May. Says Neve, “From there we will continue to build and establish our business. Six months after reaching that goal, we plan to double our production.”

The clean look of the ParkLiner is accented by the lack of a roof top air conditioning unit. The optional air conditioner is a typical window unit mounted below the side dinette, thus keeping it off the roof and aiding in reduced wind resistance. Other options include a bunk bed, flush-mounted toilet with 30 gallon black tank, dual batteries, and other goodies that will make one’s camping experience a comfortable one.

Standard features include the use of the well-regarded Optima Blue Top battery, microwave, propane furnace, 6 gallon water heater, 12 gallon fresh water tank, shower, 2-burner stove, screen door, electric water pump, bike rack receiver, and a lengthy list of much more.

One nice feature of the ParkLiner is an abundance of overhead storage. 21 feet of linear storage to be exact, as well as more storage underneath the dinettes.

While Chandler was still camping in his “other” fiberglass camper (long since sold), he designed what ParkLiner uses in their trailers today as an option: The Magic Table. The Magic Table is the rear dinette table that’s multifunctional. It serves as the table for the dinette:

It folds in half for roomier rear seating:

It folds away completely:

And finally it drops to create additional bench seating:

ParkLiner is based in Gibsonville, NC, and uses part of an old textile mill as their manufacturing facility. They currently operate on a factory direct basis and have no plans to create a dealer network.

The base weight of the ParkLiner checks in right at 2100 lbs sitting on a 3500 lbs axle with 14″ tires, allowing excellent cargo capacity for a trailer of this size. A 6’4″ interior height allows for plenty of headroom for most, and the 6’7″ interior width should result in a good amount of leg room when in bed configuration. The 2-piece fiberglass trailer shell has an interior length of 12′ while hitch to tail is 15′ long. Depending on options, one can fetch a ParkLiner for somewhere between $14,500-$17,500.

ParkLiner is using its highly detailed website as a springboard for prospective buyers. Their active presence on Facebook is also being used to complement their website by giving up-to-date changes as well as a source for more photos and discussion with those interested in learning more about the ParkLiner. It’s going to be fun to see this company grow in the future. They seem to have all their ducks in a row by starting off small and working their way up. It doesn’t hurt having a similar product to other manufacturers like Casita or Scamp, yet still offer upgrades they don’t. This opens the door for the many fans of “egg” campers to have a fresh alternative.

22 Responses to A Look at the ParkLiner…

I bought my 2012 ParkLiner on 12/28/12! Granted living in NJ, haven’t really got a chance to use it, but am very happy with it. Very solidly built, plenty of storage space. Im planning on makeing a few customization’s to it, adding fiberglass/composite propane tank so I can actually see how much propane is in the tank saves about 45lbs on the tongue by dropping from 2 steel tanks to 1 fiberglass/composite.

My husband and I are keen to purchase a Parkliner so it’s good to hear
from an owner! We just purchased a 2012 Dodge Caravan Crew to tow
it with and hope the 3600 lb. capacity of this van is enough.
We also wonder what the waiting time will be when we place the order.
Are there any difficulties you have occurred?

I got to take it camping in the mountains in Pa last weekend. Handled well going off road a few miles and climbed a dirt road up a mountain to “the spot” was in the low 20’s at night but I was all nice and toasty inside at night. One has to learn to watch water useage when boondocking but Im kinda new to it lol. Chandler did an incredible job!

I got to take it camping in the mountains in Pa last weekend. Handled well going off road a few miles and climbed a dirt road up a mountain to “the spot” was in the low 20’s at night but I was all nice and toasty inside at night. One has to learn to watch water useage when boondocking but Im kinda new to it lol. Chandler did an incredible job!

Alot of photo’s in the album. The closet is nice but with the curving of the hull, and the bathroom its not going to be easy to add shelves into it. but I don’t live in mine, just some camping alone and I still have the rear most cabinet empty and the passenger side rearmost one as well lol. Lots of storage space which is real nice.

I just made my first awning for it. Picked up a few yards of sunbrella fabric off of ebay and stitched it up on my industrial machine…Im not a pro or anything but had a sailboat and what the marine world charged for canvas was disgusting. The ParkLiner roof is shaped sorta curves as it comes up the long side then dips down and there is a 3′ wide flat spot down the middle… well I made a sleeve in the awning added a pole and a rope through it and layed it up there and used a thick bungy cord and it did a real good job of staying in place and last weekend was real windy and it shook the trailer some sunday morning but wasn’t worried about it getting damaged like a traditional rivet to the hull kind of awning. I added some pic’s of it to their facebook page, along with my tile splashguard behind the sink/stove.

Deryk – Sounds like you are having fun with your Parkliner. We bought our in May 2012 – we were very inexperienced trailer owners so it’s been a memorable year. I can’t seem to find the awning picture on Parkliner’s Facebook page. I have been trying to come up with a way to make the awning and would love to see your idea.

We bought our Parkliner in Nov 2012 and are very happy with everything about it, the one problem being is that phone calls are not returned, messages are not answered and I know Chandler is VERY busy, but he needs a phone rep to handle this end of his bussiness.

Sadly its true. There was a change in axles and a lot of people have rub issues with the wheel wells…owners aren’t getting feedback from ParkLiner. The deep cycle batteries per the manufacturer says they need to be vented to the outside…ParkLiner is now moving them to the tongue to solve the problem but how about the 40+ owners who have them inside…at least 2 owners I’m aware of had sulfuric acid gas leak out while they were camping in it…woke up to smoke alarms going off. It took several calls and emails over 2 months till I got through to ParkLiner but Chandler wouldn’t come to the phone…Cameron his office guy would put his hand over the phone to get answers to my questions… lot of us are out of warranty…one 2013 owner just spent $1000 having his wheel wells enlarged to solve the rubbing problem… lot of money to spend for a trailer with no support from the manufacturer. I love my ParkLiner but anyone who asks me I have to be totally honest with them.

Well this previous owner also bought the prototype trailer from ParkLiner, the first one built….so quality level of a prototype is obviously not going to be the same as a production model…the prototype is how they start working out some of the issues.

Now, they are comparing a prototype ParkLiner model with a top of the line Escape trailer…please! I know ParkLiner has dropped the ball on returning existing customers phonecalls/emails/making repairs/fixing their mistakes…which I am pretty annoyed at them, but dont compare a yugo to a porshe.

“I had serious pressure from an investor to start selling before development was finished”

Anyone know who the investor is? I have only read Chandler is the owner. Did not read about a co-owner or business partner? Maybe this person is the one to complain to for trailer owners who can’t get them to respond to warranty work.

Well as a followup, ParkLiner has been contacting customers and redoing wheel wells and they created a new fiberglass enclosure for the batteries on the tongue. When I ent down for the install, I also received 2 brand new batteries, they added a bypass for my water heater, drain for the water tank and 1 on the galley side to drain out the lines, and a few other things.

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The Small Trailer Enthusiast is a home for news on small travel trailers, typically 20' or less. Here you will find info on new models, industry news relating to small trailers, and any other stories I think you might find interesting. Have some small trailer news you'd like to pass along?